I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You
by Ifit'sNotBaroque
Summary: During spring break of freshman year, Ryan is nervous to go out to lunch with the newly single Gabriella. Gabriella is also nervous, but for slightly different reasons. [Low T]


**Hello! I've been wanting to write a canon-compliant Ryella, so here it is. Important note, text messages are in brackets [as seen here]. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the HSM movies or characters, if I did Ryella would be canon.**

It was spring break of freshman year. Ryan sat at his piano, his elbows were on the cover and his face was resting in his hands. He was alone at the Evans' house, which was an intimidating thing when you live in such a large house. He could never call it home since he never felt home when he was there. He sighed, thinking about Gabriella Montez. He would be seeing her soon and was unsure how he should respond to seeing her. Should he be excited, collected, sympathetic? She and Troy had recently broken up. She had not told him why, but he figured if she wanted him to know, she would let him know at lunch today. His phone vibrated, he quickly checked the text and groaned. [Are you busy? –Shar]

[Yes, I am about to go out to lunch.] he replied, hoping she would not question him further.

[Who with? –Shar]. He rolled his eyes, never understanding why she insisted on signing every text message.

[Gabby.]

[WHAT! Do you mean Gabriella Montez?] He was annoyed by how much she cared, but chuckled at the fact that she did not take the time to sign the message.

[Yes, Shar, I mean Gabriella Montez. If you'll excuse me, I am late to pick her up.] The last part of his message was not true, but he did need to get moving if he wanted to shower before picking her up.

After his shower, Ryan ran out to his car. He quickly checked the text Gabriella had sent earlier to confirm her address, then drove off.

Gabriella sat in her room, looking at her favorite photo from graduation. It was of her and Ryan Evans. His arm was wrapped around her shoulder and they both were laughing. She sighed, not knowing exactly what she was going to do when she saw him. She did not want to be too obvious about her crush on him. Ryan was…everything Troy was not. He was kind, loyal, and sensitive. As nervous as she was to be alone with him, she was extremely excited. She was also quite proud of herself for sending the text asking if he'd want to hang out over break. She was rarely forward with her feelings, but she knew that if she had a chance with Ryan that she needed to jump on it. She was unsure of how much Ryan knew about the breakup, so she figured he would be hesitant if his (obvious) feelings from the summer before senior year were still present.

She broke up with Troy the day before heading back to school for the second semester. It had been clear that their relationship was going nowhere with all the miscommunication. She knew it had mostly been her own fault that they had problems throughout senior year, but in the beginnings of the relationship and the months following graduation, Troy had been impossible to deal with. Of course, he was preoccupied with basketball in college. Broken promises quickly became something Gabriella grew accustomed to. After a heated argument about where their future was heading, she knew that wherever her future was going, it was going to be separate from Troy. She realized, through tears and screaming, that their relationship was shattered in pieces and the glue was not sticking; she had to get out. She tried to be as gentle as possible, but Troy did not take it well.

She was glad that his spring break was not the same week as hers, because she was afraid what he would say to her. She was not the only one who felt this way, Chad and Troy had not been doing well. Both boys were fiercely competitive and sometimes they took it too far. Taylor confided in Gabriella that she was sick of hearing the two of them arguing. Over Christmas break, the boys had at least one argument per day and, according to Taylor, it only got worse once she ended things with Troy. Taylor had been trying, and notably failing, to convince Chad that the friendship might not be worth it. Gabriella was thankful that in the midst of all the break up, Taylor had been a constant source of comfort…in a very Taylor-esque fashion, which included providing all the reasons breaking up with Troy was the right decision and plenty of sass. Taylor was also very supportive when Gabriella admitted that she had feelings for Ryan.

Right as Gabriella was thinking about this, she received a text from Taylor. [You ready for your date with Ryan?]

Gabriella smiled. [I wouldn't call it a date, but yeah.]

[It's a date.] was all Taylor responded with.

Gabriella rolled her eyes and pulled out a white and blue floral dress (a/n: the one she wore in HSM2 for _You are the Music in Me_ ). After putting it on, she braided a bit of hair on each side and pulled them to meet in the back. She smiled at her reflection right as she heard the doorbell ring.

Ryan had never been so nervous in his entire life as he was when Mrs. Montez opened the door, "Hello Ryan."

"Hi Mrs. Montez. How are you today?"

"I'm doing well. It's so nice to have Gabby home. How are you? Is college going well?"

"It's really great. I love college."

At that moment, Gabriella came down the steps and smiled, "Hey Ryan."

Ryan attempted to reply, but found that he was not able to. He swallowed before brightly smiling, "Hi Gabriella."

She grabbed a jacket from the closet before hugging him, "I've missed you."

He smiled into her hair, tightening his arms around her, "I've missed you too." They went to his car and Ryan could not help but look at her before driving off.

"What is it? Do I have something in my teeth?" she asked, reaching towards her mouth.

"No, it's not that. It's just…" he paused, "You are more beautiful than I remember," he quietly admitted.

He could see the blush rising on her cheeks, "Thank you, Ryan." After a short silence, she asked, "How has freshman year been treating you so far? I'm sorry I didn't get to see you over winter break, it was…tense for me."

"It's been going well. I was in a play just before break. I'm sorry to hear your break was tense; is everything okay now?"

She smiled, "Everything got so much better once I broke up with Troy and I went back to school."

"Wait, you guys broke up in January?"

"Yeah, I broke up with him because he was so, what's the word, inconsistent?" she replied.

"Oh, I see…" This silence lingered a little longer.

"Do you see much of Kelsi?" Gabriella asked.

"Occasionally," Ryan replied, "we try to hang out every month or so. We aren't really in the same circles, though. I'm glad that the damage Sharpay and I did in high school hasn't affected her too much. She's a good friend." He tried to emphasize that he didn't have feelings for Kelsi since he had overheard Gabriella whispering to Troy at graduation that she thought that he and Kelsi would be cute together.

"That's nice. I haven't been able to talk to her as much as I'd like to, but she and I hung out yesterday and she told me that she has a boyfriend. I'm happy for her," Gabriella replied.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about Mike," he replied, relieved that Kelsi had told her that. "He seems pretty nice."

When they got to the restaurant, the conversation lulled while they ordered, but Ryan could not help but admire the concentrated look on Gabriella's face as she ordered. Once the waitress left with their menus, Gabriella suddenly blurt out a string of incomprehensible words.

"Sorry, I have no idea what you just said," he replied with a gentle smile.

"Do you ever wish that high school ended differently?" she asked again, not meeting his eyes.

"In some ways, yeah. What about you?"

"In most ways, yes," Gabriella replied, "I was kind of awful throughout most of senior year, but I was right about one thing."

"Oh?"

"That my future could not and should not depend on Troy. I needed to make my own decisions and I feel a lot better now that I am no longer held back by him. He…had to control everything and that was really hurtful to me."

Ryan could tell she was still broken up by this, but that she really needed support, so he reached over the table to hold her hand that had previously been occupied by nervously tapping the table. He also started tracing circles on her wrist with his thumb.

She smiled before continuing, "Looking back I realize that my time at East High was completely dominated by him and I failed to recognize the value of the wonderful friendships I built in my year and a half there. I'm hoping to remedy that now."

"And I'm one of those wonderful friendships?" he clarified, nervously.

Gabriella chuckled, "You're the most important of those wonderful friendships, Ryan."

His hand went still on hers, "I-I..I am?" he stuttered.

"Absolutely," she replied.

At that point, Ryan's mind was whirling. He was sitting here with Gabriella, who clearly valued their friendship much more highly than he ever imagined she would. Hope began to spring up in his chest as she smiled at him. "I-I…y-you…" he began in a stutter before evening his voice to finish, "You are my most valued friendship from high school too, Gabby."

He noticed her blush again, "Ryan, do you ever think back to that summer? The one that half of our class worked at Lava Springs?"

"Yeah, every day, to be honest," he admitted with ease.

"I do too," she replied, "I realize I never thanked you."

Ryan could not hide the confusion from seeping out of his features, "Thank me for what?"

"Everything," Gabriella started, "I'm not even sure how to put it into words. You were so kind to me when I was upset with Troy without ever taking advantage of me. You helped us make the most of that summer when we were in a pretty tough place. You helped _me_ , Ryan. You helped me see the beauty of life in the midst of what was almost the worst summer of my life, despite being the first one since my dad left that we didn't move."

Ryan was blushing, he hoped (but to no avail) that it did not show, " _You helped me_ that summer, Gabriella. I felt invisible and alone until you came around and noticed me as an individual rather than just Sharpay's partner-in-bullying."

"I've been blind, Ryan," Gabriella told him, "for not seeing that you are the kindest, most wonderful guy that I have ever met."

Ryan could now feel the heat in his entire face, "If anyone deserves such high praise, it's you. You're the sweetest, most magnificent girl I have ever met." He momentarily removed his hand from hers to move his chair slightly around the table before intertwining their fingers, "Will you be my girlfriend, Gabriella?"

She quickly nodded, before closing the distance between them. Ryan was immersed in pure bliss as Gabriella's lips moved melodiously with his. He put his free hand in her hair, finally feeling the soft curls that he had dreamed of touching since that summer. He felt her free hand cup his cheek and could not stop the pleased shiver that came as a result of it all.

About an hour later, Gabriella sighed contentedly as they sat hand-in-hand by the piano in the Evans' parlor. She was somewhat intimidated by being in such a grand house, but relaxed when Ryan told her he felt the same way, despite living there for years. Ryan started to play a fast tune and sang:

 _Ya never know what you're gonna feel, oh  
Ya never see it comin' suddenly it's real_

Gabriella smiled as she added:

 _Oh, never even crossed my mind, no  
That I would ever end up here tonight_

Ryan nudged her shoulder as they both sang:

 _All things change  
When you don't expect them to  
No one knows  
What the future's gonna do  
I never even noticed  
That you've been there all along_

 _I can't take my eyes off of you  
I know you feel the same way too, yeah  
I can't take my eyes off of you  
All it took . . . Was one look  
For a dream come true_

Ryan continued with a cheeky grin that Gabriella adored:

 _Yeah, we got a good thing goin' on_

She kissed his cheek quickly before continuing:

 _Oh, right here is right where we belong_

They both danced with their upper bodies as they continued:

 _You never really know what you might find  
Now all I see is you and I  
You're everything I never knew  
That I've been looking for_

"What's going on in here?" they were interrupted by Sharpay's voice.

"I was just writing a song with my girlfriend, if you must know," Ryan replied. Gabriella gaped at him in shock that he spoke so freely to his sister. She had never heard him sound like that when it came to Sharpay. He had told her about the Star Dazzle confrontation, but she had never seen it for herself.

"You're dating Gabriella Montez?"

"Yes," he replied, taking her hand in his, which made Gabriella smile, melting her worries away.

"You're not dating Troy anymore?" she asked, finally addressing Gabriella.

"We haven't been for months," she replied, wishing Sharpay would leave them alone. She knew she would have to make amends with Sharpay soon, but she really did not want to deal with her at the moment.

"Oh," Sharpay replied happily, "I have a phone call to make. Toodles!" She ran off with a giddy smile on her face and Gabriella could not resist the urge to roll her eyes.

"Sorry about that…that was insensitive of her," Ryan apologized.

Gabriella rolled her eyes again, "Do you really think that bothers me? They can get together if they want to. I'm completely over him and completely happy with you."

He released her hand to pull her close to him by the waist, "I'm glad. I have been wanting this for a long time." With that he kissed her.

Gabriella happily sighed into the kiss, reaching her one hand to his waist and the other to his neck. She felt his other hand move to play with her hair again. After a few seconds, she pulled back and rested her head on his shoulder, "Thank you."

"What for?"

She smiled up him, admiring his eyes, "Everything."

 **I hope you enjoyed this little story. I hope the kissing scenes were alright; this was my first attempt at writing kissing beyond "he kissed her" or something like that. I figured** ** _I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You_** **is free game for how it comes into the story since it's just randomly on the end of the album. Also, if anyone has any better ideas of how to put texting into writing, please let me know. I still can't figure out what I like and kind of settled since I didn't want to use italics for both the lyrics and texting. ~Lyddie**


End file.
